George Will: Break up the Big Banks

George Will calls for breaking up the big banks. Too big to fail undermines markets, faith in free enterprise, citing Dallas Fed Reserve President Richard Fisher. Calls on Mitt to join him.

Fat chance. Mitt's not a principled conservative nor even a free market guy. He's a vulture capitalist, not a venture capitalist. He believes in rigged markets.

But nice to see Will make the sensible point. Too big to fail is too dangerous to permit. They benefit because investors see them as protected against failure -- and thus they are able to borrow more, risk more, and pocket more than they would if they had to be prudent. They offend free markets with the guarantee that their losses will be socialized. They offend socialism with the guarantee that their profits are privately pocketed.

What Alan Greenspan called the "flaw" in his ideology makes Will wrong about almost everything. But this time he called it right. Conservatives with any scruples left should be leading the fight to break up the big banks.